Birdmen: Pigeon Fanciers documentary piece

Currently all over the world, racing pigeons are cultivated for their beauty, their will to survive, their tenacity, their incredible speed, and their legendary endurance-in short, the marvelous ability to race to their individual homes at breakneck speeds. From the deserts of the Middle East, to the plains of South Africa, to the industrial towns of Europe, to the ancient cities of China, and finally, to the skyscrapers of America, there exists a bond that goes beyond color, creed, origin, class, and politics. Lovers of racing pigeons are part of a worldwide fraternity that has been with us from the dawn of time itself!

This set of images document some of the interest insights of pigeon men, breeder, racer and folk that simply do it for the love of the birds. The images were all captures aorund the Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Gateshead and offer a glimpse of the people and their interest in these birds. Typically wet and grey on all days i shot which actually somehow added to the feeling i got. I was surprised by the amount of love and care the owners have for the birds. Some of the breeder were "tough men" though clearly had a soft spot for the animals, for other it was more like a business and pigeons were used a studs to breed top racing birds. Surprisingly big money was at stake for many of the top racers. I certainly wont ever look at a pigeon in the same light again.

Shooting the past : Traditional tea dance documentary

Over the coming months Ill be posting some example of my photographic work, which rages form documentary, self negotiated to commercial, fashion and weddings. Here the first, I documented document a traditional tea dance in the Great hall in Newcastle The discovery Museum. It was a truly a spectacular even, full of character and charm, you could really sense the concept of change and time in the hall during the dance, the participants together all has a common ground and could relate to the music and the absence, lots of interested visual insights for me as a photographer, and also helped me recognise the difference in the way in which people spent time entertaining themselves. The whole concept of a tea dance is an entirely different experience to the way people today entertain themselves on a weekend. I loved the fact so many people there have a extra pair of smart yet practical dancing" dancing shoes". Hope you enjoy then. There's a little music to set the scene if you click on the play button.

The blogg for Sean Elliott Photography

Welcome to the Blog page for the Photographer Sean Elliott. I will be updating my profile keeping the world up to date with all aspects of my photography, from what I'm up to tips things that interest me , to the odd occasional tip and techniques regrading photography. As a photographer I tend to feel its impotent to absorb and soak up a broad range of stimulating visual, readings and developments in the work of photography as well as the arts in general. Its in my nature to feel the need to share this knowledge and i gain personally from doing so. never one to keep their card too close to ones chest ( which to be fair has it advantages and disadvantages).

I'm a creative through and through and without doubt i use the left side of my brain, I feel luck in many ays that that's the way i am but it does unfortunately have its disadvantageous, for one im a not naturally a good writer, although in contrast im a good aural communicator , its the transition between my thoughts and my fingers that fails me in many ways, It takes me an hour to type a documents my partner could do in 15 minutes. which it partly one of the reasons I keen to devleop this blog, always keen to improve and the advantages of being able to think and cpply apply my thoughts and communicate though my photography is I believe a fair compromise on not being able to write so well, so please bear with me!

I hope you enjoy my photography blog, i can assure you it will be interested and varied, im passionate about photograhy or more to the point about imagery , its how i see the world and its where I feel I can gain a connection with it. Words on the otherhand scare the hell out of me, its slightly unfortunate that in unable to even type the word P H O T O G R A P H Y . without having to sit and think about each letter, every time I type it as i think it! it comes out like this....

photogrpahy

there you go I genuinely was trying to type it correctly. And i can honestly say it looked right to me for a good part of 4 minutes. I'm not sure if I'm dyslexic, but i know I'm not as i should be when it comes to letters , words and numbers. The strange thing about this whole word and typing thing is that Im actually a very competent type, I can touch type very well, I can close my eyes and know know instinctively where every letter of the keyboard is, i was brought up with computers from the age of 7 i was know to be the computer boffin, its just the translation between my head and fingers that fails me... AGHHHH!!!!

So, ill stop making excuses and try my best and hopefully in time improve. I hope you enjoy my work, collective though and experiences. or at least feel the need to read what i have to offer from time to time, im not doing this for any reason other that to help myself share my thoughts and experiences and try to improve with the structuring of of my thoughts.


and so it begins....